A gathering of thoughts and stories from a 12 hour night ER nurse. Some will be happy and some will be sad, but don't visit if you don't have a dark sense of humor and don't like a bit of sarcasm. I tend to use humor to deal with death and stress.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Does it really matter at that point???

We get this patient in DT's (alcohol withdrawal) and my coworker that is assigned to her asks her, as part of the admission assessment, how much she drinks. The patient tells her that she drinks 1L (yes 1 liter!!) of vodka daily.

Now I was taught in nursing school that with cigarrettes and alcohol the patient rarely admits to the actual amount and that the general rule of thumb for both is to double it and then you are closer to the acutal amount.

Does this mean that this woman actually drinks 2L of vodka daily? And if it is 1L or 2L does the difference really matter at that point? She's pickling her liver either way and currently in DT's so, I ask again........when it's THAT much does the actual amount really matter?

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About Me

I'm Tracey, a 34 year RN who works the 12 hour night shift. I now work as an ER nurse. In my career I've worked 1 year in med/surg/oncology, 8 years in cardiac critical care, and 2 years as a MET/resource nurse. I recently transferred to the ER. I started this blog as a way to deal with the stress that nursing has delt me. They say getting it all off your chest is the best therapy.

I also wanted a way to remember some of the more special stories. Thanks for reading and feel free to leave comments as you please.

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